Nothing
symbolizes spineless deference more than a man on bended knee proposing
marriage to his girlfriend. When he utters to her that timeless four-word
question — “Will you marry me?” — he is taking
the biggest risk of his life: disappointing her. Through this emasculating
act, he’s really asking her to bury him.

And,
if he should, G-d forbid, disappoint his delicate flower, one only
wonders how she might retaliate. Americans, who hate to see their
women disappointed, will give her lots of latitude — whether
she throws his clothes out the window, slaps him in the face (as Teri
Hatcher, out of petty anger, did to Pierce Brosnan in Tomorrow
Never Dies), or kills him with virtual impunity, as Mary
Winkler did to her sleeping husband, using the abuse or bipolar-disorder
defense.

Upon
receiving marriage proposals from their boyfriends in front of live
TV cameras, women typically jump up and down, shriek, and shed tears.
Yet, given that the divorce rate hovers at about half, that women
seek at least 70% of all marital dissolutions (an accurate barometer
of female disappointment), and that the inevitable court battles will
destroy lives, one must suspect the ebullience women exhibit when
first sliding on their sparkly engagement rings. Clearly, they’re
not atwitter about the men they’ve betrothed. So, why the fuss?

Billions
of men throughout history have initiated the proposal ritual, for
a variety of reasons. Supposedly, the basis of marriage has changed
over time — evolving from parentally arranged unions focused
on property, wealth, station, and lineage to modern ones in which
the fiancés freely choose each other out of love and compatibility.

In
reality, the more things have changed, the more they’ve stayed
the same. Marriages, in 2008, still are about money and children,
as their dissolutions ultimately prove. When a baseball unravels,
one can see its innards; a marriage is no different. Ironically, divorce
documents don’t mention love, allegedly a marriage’s core
ingredient but a concept few people understand or practice.

Perpetual
Childhood

Disappointment,
defined as the gap between expectation and reality, is an immutable
part of life. True adults — those who are mentally and emotionally
mature — accept, manage, and move past disappointments, and
they don’t expect others to prevent them.

Children,
on the other hand, whether 5 or 35, do not and cannot deal
with disappointment. Despite all the talk about feminism and equality,
Americans, via outmoded chivalry and unconstitutional reproduction,
child-custody, rape, and domestic-violence laws, keep women in perpetual
childhood. Yes, American women have grown accustomed to being spared
risk, pain, and disappointment.

Because
most men have been raised to make women happy, to close that painful
gap between expectation and reality, the penalty for failing is tremendous.
To help clueless men navigate these risky waters, AOL published a
compass called “5
Things You Should Never Say to a Woman.” Imagine the retaliation
against any man who violates even one of these rules.

I
appeared the other day on Fox Business Network to debate Alexis Glick
and Tracy Byrnes about a new study citing an increase in female unhappiness
at age 48. I opined that misery for women begins in childhood, when
they’re taught that happiness derives from shoes, jewelry, boob-jobs,
and pedestals. Naturally, the Fox women reacted with outrage, accusing
me of knowing the “wrong” women and living in the dark
ages. Dark ages? How do Alexis and Tracy explain the PMS (princess
mentality syndrome) demands of their competitor at CNBC, Erin Burnett,
who penned “8
Ways to Impress Me” on MensHealth.com? Her aim: to teach
men how not to disappoint her. The top brass at CNBC weren’t
impressed.

Women
just don’t like to admit that feminarcissism is the rule, not
the exception. Why is this? Most men tolerate and enable it out of
false necessity: they naïvely believe that women have weak libidos.
Such ignorance about female sexuality drives all irrational male behavior,
as I wrote in Under the
Clitoral Hood. In fact, the opposite is true: women are more
lustful than men. Until men grasp this, they will continue to
grovel and please — and women will continue to demand, and get,
it.

Have
you ever heard the slogan, If Mom’s happy, everyone’s
happy? Of course you have. This nonsense is practiced in many families,
as if Mom is the “special” parent whom everyone must please,
and Dad, the man, is superfluous. That’s why feminism is so
successful, and men’s rights almost dead, in all Western countries.
Men aren’t just automatons designed to please women; they’re
willing automatons, eager to please women!

I
appeared a year or so ago as a guest on a radio program in Massachusetts.
The male host asked me what’s inherently wrong with men that
they always screw up relationships. I was appalled. “Why do
you think women are relationship experts, perfect little angels who
have no faults? Why do you automatically assume men are the culprits?”
I shot back. He had no response because he’s the typical self-hating
man who believes that men are scum. Alas, there are many
like him in our midst.

On
a radio show in DC, the male host asked me what men’s rights
are and why men need any rights — I kid you not. Other male
hosts have robotically repeated the feminist mantra, “women
haven’t even voted for 100 years, and we men should cut them
a break.” Dennis Miller’s wife warned him, via text message
during our exchange, not to have me back on his show. A few other
hosts admitted that their wives had cut off sex for a week after hearing
them agree with me on the air.

It’s
sad that American men have reduced themselves to living in fear of
women, causing women to feel that not being disappointed is an unalienable
right. Consequences? On Fathers’ Day, when Barack Obama unilaterally
criticized men for the plight of fatherless homes, he received praise.
Yet, by completely
giving women a pass on Mothers’ Day — for the same
issue — not one journalist or TV anchor challenged, has challenged,
or ever will challenge him.

Why
is it that women who falsely accuse men of rape or domestic violence
are never prosecuted? Why is it that Hollywood and Madison Avenue
continually portray men in sitcoms and TV commercials as moronic,
impotent servants to their wives? And, why is it that, when women
drop off their unwanted newborns at local fire stations, no questions
asked, society looks the other way? More coddling and shielding them
from risk, pain, and disappointment.

After
Hillary Clinton conceded to Barack Obama, on June 7, 2008, she began
her victimhood campaign, blaming members of the media for engaging
in sexism, which, she claimed, derailed her nomination. At the same
time, Senator Clinton bragged about receiving 18M primary votes, a
US record. If sexism is so rampant, how did she amass 18M votes, many
from men? In fact, Clinton is a hypocrite. Her presidential campaign
and Website were all about women, women, women — which is overt
sexism.

Perverse
Coddling

I
made the point earlier that most men are raised to elevate women on
pedestals and to avoid disappointing them. Let’s see an example.
In this well-known
video, a father surprises his daughter, Mackenzie, with a red
sports car on her 16th birthday. Instead of thanking him, she whines
and stomps her feet — because she hates the color. Why the ungrateful
behavior? Because Mackenzie’s pathetic, appeasing father has
kissed her ass since birth, shielding her from disappointment. Is
there a Mackenzie in your home? Is she your daughter, your girlfriend,
or your wife — or all three?

In
wimpy America, Mackenzie will find many men to follow in
her father’s tiptoes. And, I guarantee that the masochist who
eventually proposes marriage to Mackenzie will bow before her on bended
knee, because he, like Mackenzie’s father, views women as superior
beings. Unfortunately, he will have lots of like-minded company across
our country: husbands, cops, DAs, judges, jurors, politicians, journalists,
and producers of movies, commercials, and sitcoms.

Tell
a woman she’s too weak to be an executive in your company or
commander in chief of the US Armed Forces, and see how fast you get
a call from the EEOC. Now, tell her she’s too strong to require
special protection from VAWA, the unconstitutional Violence Against
Women Act that Joe Biden, the US Senate’s biggest woman-pleaser,
created. Now, watch her victimhood side emerge to explain her vulnerabilities.
Basically, women are strong when it suits them and weak when it suits
them, and men, suffering from vaginaphobia, just go along with it.

This
perverse coddling of women is rooted in the fear of disappointing
them. It is, in reality, a blatant disrespect for them, a
fundamental belief that they’re weak, defenseless victims. But,
if women were so insulted by condescending coddling, they would protest,
right? Have you ever heard one woman complain about getting special
privileges?

Like
Cinderella

A
friend of mine recently recounted an incident where his ex-wife had
violated their custody agreement. He took her to court, where the
male judge ruled, illegally, in her favor. Said the judge to my friend:
“I don’t want to disappoint her.” Who cares
about laws when a woman’s fragility is at stake? I encounter
men all the time, just like this judge, who kowtow to their girlfriends
and wives out of fear of disappointing them.

Two
weeks ago, I debated Lis Wiehl on Fox News Channel’s Your
World with Neil Cavuto about a jilted
woman who won a $150K settlement from a Georgia jury because her
fiancé had broken their engagement. He did this because, after
paying $30K of her debts, which he was not required to do, he then
discovered that her debts are greater than she initially had revealed.
In other words, marriage was her ticket out of debt. So, he decided
not to marry her. Sounds reasonable, right? Wrong. Engagement is a
risk-free trial before making a lifelong commitment, right? Wrong.
This man had committed the sin of disappointing a woman. Even though
she had no legal basis for bringing this action, the 12-person jury,
half male, felt sorry for her. Had the situation been reversed, can
you imagine a jury awarding $150K to a jilted man?

A
casualty of TV’s highly intellectual show, The Bachelor,
22-year-old Shayne Lamas, daughter of Lorenzo Lamas, broke off her
engagement to Matt Grant. Yet, she
wants to keep the ring and encase it in a glass box, like Cinderella.
It is customary, and legally required in most states, that, when an
engagement ends, the woman return her engagement ring to the man who
gave it to her. But, because Shayne lives in a country that hates
to disappoint women, she believes she’ll prevail. If she is
forced to return that ring, I’ll be surprised.

Last
month, Cynthia Rodriguez filed for divorce against Yankee great Alex
Rodriguez, also known as A-Rod, after reports surfaced that he was
involved with Madonna. A-Rod and Cynthia live in Florida, a no-fault
state, where infidelity is not grounds for divorce. In 2002, they
signed a prenup, a binding contract detailing how their assets would
be split in case of a divorce. Throughout their marriage, A-Rod, who
now earns an annual base of $27M, has been spotted publicly with numerous
women. Knowing this, Cynthia stayed with him and also had a second
child. Because contract law apparently doesn’t apply to disappointed
women, Cynthia is illegally using charges of infidelity to persuade
the judge to set aside their prenup and award her much more money.
A-Rod
is fighting to have the judge ignore the infidelity charges (which
the law dictates) and respect the prenup (which the law also dictates).
Cynthia will try to claim that she signed the prenup under duress
— because girls, you know, don’t understand, like, contracts.
If she doesn’t prevail, I will be surprised.

The
NoNonsense Bottom Line

To
coexist with a woman in a land that loathes female disappointment,
a man now needs a conversation contract, a date contract, a sex contract,
a coworker contract, a cohabitation contract, an engagement contract,
and a marriage contract — none of which is guaranteed to be
enforced. A bonanza for lawyers!

A
man’s welfare, in this gynocracy that men built, depends on
a woman’s mood, her ethics, the state in which she lives, and
the reluctance of an unknown future judge or jury to “disappoint”
her. The playing field is unlevel because men — afraid of being
called misogynists and afraid of not getting laid — allowed
it to happen, continue to tolerate it, and won’t fight it.

Had
Peter Cook been the aggrieved party in his divorce from Christy Brinkley,
and elected to open their proceedings to the public, the judge, the
media, and women’s groups would have universally vilified him
as a cad and a terrible father. Yet, when Christy did just that, she
got a pass. In fact, Brinkley’s oldest daughter was “proud”
of
her mother’s public circus. Society accepts irrational,
ruinous emotions and behavior from women as just compensation for
their disappointments.

You
don’t think women expect to be coddled, to have the upper hand
in life? Look around in a restaurant, the next time you go out; count
how many women are buying dinner for men. Then, listen to politicians
speak, on both sides of the aisle; count how many are promising to
prosecute women who falsely accuse men of rape. Women demand and get
coddling. And, as long as caped men keep rescuing women from their
disappointments, this manipulation game shall continue.

Subscribe to the NewsWithViews Daily News Alerts!

Enter Your E-Mail Address:

The
desire to coddle is as immature and dysfunctional as the desire to
be coddled. Such codependency leads to upwardly spiraling expectations
and disappointments — as the relationship between Mackenzie
and her father epitomizes. The courage to disappoint women is a sign
of respect for them. Accepting disappointment as part of
life, and that men are not responsible for preventing it, is a sign
of self-respect for women.

If
you’re a man whose mantra is Thou Shalt Not Disappoint Her
— with the “wrong” dinner, conversation, joke, diamond,
car, house, vacation, divorce settlement, salary, or legislation —
you need to grow a pair.

Rudov has appeared
on the KTLA Morning Show, CNN, Fox Business Network, and is a featured
weekly guest on Fox News Channel's Your World with Neil Cavuto. Rudov
also appears regularly on FNC's The O'Reilly Factor.

Marc Rudov has
piqued many listeners on radio shows including The Howard Stern Show (Sirius),
The Tom Leykis Show (CBS Radio), The Dennis Miller Show (Westwood One),
The John Gibson Program (Fox News Radio), The Mancow Show (Talk Radio
Network), Covino & Rich (Maxim/Sirius), Afternoon Advice with Tiffany
Granath (Playboy/Sirius), The Roger Hedgecock Show (Clear Channel), The
Troy Neff Show (Fox Sports Radio), The Big Show with Mason & Ireland
(ESPN Radio), National Evenings with Libbi Gorr & Mary Moody (ABC
Radio Australia), and The John Oakley Morning Show (AM640 Radio Toronto).